1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film laminating apparatus and, more particularly, is directed to a film laminating apparatus by which a transparent film having a heat activiat layer is laminated onto a sheet of paper.
2. Description of the Background
It is known to produce a laminated article by laminating a transparent protective film formed, for example, of a polyester resin material having coated on its one surface a heat-activated bonding material and which is laminated onto a paper sheet on which has already been printed information such as characters, picture images, and the like. In this fashion, the information printed on the paper sheet is protected from degradation. In order to produce efficiently an acceptable end product the protective film must be positioned relative to the paper sheet both accurately and positively.
In known film laminating apparatus which in a plurality of films or sheets are laminated using thermal activation type adhesive agent, a heated roller is generally used as the heating device. Generally, the heated rollers used in such film laminating apparatus are of relatively large heat capacity and, thus, it takes a relatively long time to reach a sufficiently high operating temperature that the heated roller is able to perform the thermal transfer lamination. In other words, the so called "rise" time of the conventional heated roller is poor.
In order to maintain the temperature of the conventionally used heated roller constant, such roller is rotated continuously and while solving one problem, this presents another. Specifically, the laminating film has on its one surface a thermally activated adhesive layer and, because the heated roller is continuously rotated, the laminating film must be similarly moved at all times and, thus, a large amount of the film is wasted. Additionally, when no paper is present and the film is being heated and moved the thermal transfer of the film onto the rubber pressure roller typically employed will occur and, thus, the laminate film becomes bonded to the rubber pressure roller, thereby causing an unacceptable operating condition.
Moreover, in such prior art devices, because the heated roller is continuously rotated with its outer surfaces being heated, and because the heat roller is heated by an internally arranged electrical resistance element, the diameter and overall size of such heat roller becomes larger than desirable and also the ambient temperature of the surrounding machine elements is unacceptably increased. The consequence of this is that the film laminating apparatus using such heat roller becomes expensive and complex due to the necessity that all the constituent parts must have relatively high thermal resistance properties.